The fédérés were delegates to a grand celebration on Bastille Day 1790, honoring the fall of the Bastille the previous year. By the time of this cartoon, the term was used more generally to refer to the more common or uncouth revolutionaries of Paris. In the drawing, Napoleon's son (the King of Rome) remarks that Napoleon is covered with lice. Napoleon replies that those are fédérés. The metaphor was the attempt of the caricaturist to undercut Napoleon's popular support by showing that he secretly despised the revolutionaries.